Worth Fighting For
by Blyn
Summary: [DISCONTINUED]The team stumbles upon an CIA undercover op while on a case. It turns out the operative is a very old friend of Deeks' & even Hetty knows her. The NCIS team works with her to find stolen weapons & corrupt naval officers. OC/Callen with minor Deeks/Kensi.
1. We Meet Again

**Ok, so this is my first fic, so please take it easy on me. I know most people don't like OC's but this story has one and it mainly revolves around her and her relationship with Callen with just as much Kensi and Deeks. I'm not sure how well I'll be able to keep them in character so please, bear with me. I LOVE constructive critisism and suggestions. Also, if you're willing to beta, please let me know! It's going to be pretty long. I've got this chapter and the next moving along well. Not sure how long it's really going to be as it's still under development in my brain. :)**** Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS: Los Angeles or it's characters. The only thing I own is JD.  
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**Worth Fighting For**

"Federal Agents, stop right there!"

Kensi yelled burst around the corner to an alley in downtown Los Angeles with her partner, guns drawn She and Deeks were tailing a suspect until said suspect had stopped to speak with a woman whom they assumed was the one that they were following their suspect for 3 hours to find. The woman whom the suspect was talking to was tall, probably 5'8 or 5'9, not skinny but very built, she obviously worked out A LOT. She had dark brown hair that came around to be seen beneath her light blue hoodie. She was either trying to hide the fact that she was a woman, or just hide her face.

JD was SHOCKED, to say the least. The last person she had expected to walk around that corner was Marty Deeks. She had been expecting NCIS to follow her informant but was not expecting them to catch on to her informant so easily and so soon, much less that one of the ones following him was Marty. This was going to make things EXTREMELY complicated. She wa1s being watched by her "employer" and if she let her real identity be known, her 3 years of undercover work, and all the heartache, pain, and loss that came with it, would be all for nothing. Her faster than average mind raced the hundreds of possible outcomes and ways to get out of this scenario. She came up with several but only one of which would be extremely helpful to her mission but she really didn't want to do it because it involved hurting someone. However, sacrifices must be made in order to complete her mission and if she were to pull it off, she'd have to take out her informant, or at least make it look like she had. Also, the only way for it to work would be if Marty hadn't recognized her yet which the chances of him recognizing her with her hood up were slim to none.

It had only been about 15 seconds since the agents had come around the corner and her informant standing between her and the agents was giving in. With his hands up he waited for the two agents to approach him. Without a word and in an instant she was behind the man, her hidden knife sliding smoothly from it's sheath strapped to her side and before anyone had realized it, she'd stabbed the man in the back. His eyes were wide with shock and pain as he swayed and before he even began to fall she had pushed him towards Marty so he had to dodge the falling body instead of aim and shoot at her. That was all the time she needed. As the informant fell onto Marty she quickly ducked below Kensi's gun as she tried to fire a shot but JD was fast and before Kensi knew it, JD had grabbed one of Kensi wrists with her left hand and jerked Kensi to her hard, sliding her left leg in front of the agent to force her to trip and fall forward. As Kensi fell, JD twisted and used the momentum from her turn to push Kensi down with her right hand. Kensi hit the ground hard on her stomach with a little grunt. This also caused Kensi to loosen her grip on her gun and JD wrenched it from her grasp as Kensi had fallen. By the time Deeks recovered, JD had already stepped over Kensi to run back up the alley, shoving Kensi's gun in her pocket.

There was no way they could catch her now if she didn't want them to. She was in her element: a free runner's paradise. You could call free running her hobby in her off time, but when she was at work, it served her well. Where someone saw an obstacle, she saw a way to jump over it. But she wasn't moving at top speed. She knew that Marty could recover fast enough to catch up to her at the pace she set and Kensi was down for a good bit, probably with the wind knocked from her. JD hadn't put ALL her force into punching Kensi, she only wanted Kensi to go down long enough for JD to get away and Marty to follow. Kensi's pride would hurt more in the morning that the force of the fall. Since she was being watched, she needed to make sure her employer new she got away from the agents and give Marty a chance to catch up with her to talk.

She jumped over fallen trash cans and dove around corners, loving the adrenaline and freedom of just RUNNING. She had to remind her self to keep it at a slower pace so she didn't get too much ahead. After she turned down her 7th or 8th alley she figured she was far enough away from prying eyes and ears so she jumped on top of a dumpster, grabbed a poll from some scaffolding to a building that was undergoing renovations to swing up to land above the alley. And this is where she crouched to wait for Marty.

"Kensi!" Deek's yelled at his partner as he saw her go down and as he caught the stabbed man and lay him on the ground. He could tell right away the stab wasn't life threatening if they could stop the bleeding.

"I'm fine... go after her." She barely got out as she rolled over on the ground trying to breath.

"Her?"

"JUST GO!" Kensi yelled at Deeks as she tried to catch her breath.

"Alright fine!"

Something was strange about this whole thing. The people they were after weren't known for letting people go this easily. The person, now known to him as a woman, had stabbed her informant but not to kill him and she could have easily killed both him and Kensi in that moment she had caught them off guard but chose to run instead.

He stood and watched as the woman disappeared around the corner at the end of the alley. He ran to the corner he saw her disappear behind and stopped to peak around. He knew now she was armed because she had taken Kensi's gun so he didn't take any chances. He put his back against the wall and leaned out to peak around the corner and saw a flash of light blue leap up onto a dumpster at the end of the alley and up over a fence. He didn't hesitate to give chase as it didn't seem that she was going to turn around and shoot. He reached the dumpster and fence at the time she disappeared around the next corner.

It took him a bit longer to get over the dumpster and fence than it took her. The woman was obviously trained in evasion. He smirked as he landed on the other side of the fence.

"That's probably another one of those classes I didn't take."

He went back to serious business as he neared the next corner with his gun drawn. There were more alley's and more corners that he carefully went around and each time he'd get a glance of the light blue flash. Finally he reached a corner where he heard what sounded like stomping on a dumpster before there was a short series of noises he couldn't quite make out before it got quiet . He leaned out to look Nothing. No sound or site of the woman but she had to be in the alley still because it was a dead end. Time to do what he did best: Talk.

"Alright lady, this is the end of the road! Come out, you've got nowhere to go!" He yelled from around the corner.

"Fine, just don't shoot me. I'm on your side, Marty."

While he was still around the corner she jumped from her perch 10 feet above the ground to her feet and into a roll that had her standing in the middle of the alley, her hands in the air in surrender.

He'd heard her jump and land and waited until he heard no more movement before peaking back around the corner. He saw her standing there with her hands up but still couldn't see her face. He wasn't taking any chances. And how the hell did she know his name? This whole situation was getting way out of hand in the weird department.

"I normally don't shoot women but I just saw you stab a man in the back and that tends to leave me a bit nervous. Just toss my partner's gun and any other weapon you may have on the ground and I wont have to break my code and shoot a woman."

JD smiled, "I'm so proud of you! You were NEVER this careful back then. I guess becoming a cop has changed you for the better." She slowly reached into the front pocket of her hoodie and removed Kensi's gun with two fingers then made sure the safety was on before she tossed it to the side. She did the same thing with her .45 that was in the custom made holster at the small of her back. It was well hidden and stayed in place when she was free running.

"Okay Marty. You heard them hit the ground, that's all I have." She put her hands back up to make sure he knew that she wasn't going to try anything.

At this point Marty felt safe enough to come from around the corner, his gun trained on the woman.

"Alright now turn around and put your hands behind your back."

"Aw come on Marty! Aren't you curious as to who I am? Don't you want to see my face?" He could see her lips turn up in a smirk from the shade of her hoodie. He hadn't seen her whole face yet, what could it hurt, right?

"Alright but remember I know how freaky fast you are and that makes me a bit trigger happy."

She slowly moved her hand to her hood and pushed it back, revealing pale skin, dark brown hair, and familiar deep blue eyes. It took all of 5 seconds to realize he recognized her. His eyes got a little wide.

"I do know you..." JD could see the gears turning in his head as he lowered his gun a few inches.

"It's me Marty, it's JD. Don't you remember me?"

Realization hit him like a ton of bricks, "JD? What the hell are you doing here?" He knew better than to completely lower his gun because he wasn't sure what she was here for. She could have taken a wrong turn down the line and become one of the bad guys. It'd been 15 years since he'd seen her last so it was a possibility.

"JD, what's going on? Why are you with an informant for the Russian Mafia?" He kept his gun pointed at her and she still stood there, hands up and not moving.

"Well, I'm on a long term undercover assignment for a certain organization. I can't talk about it with you until you've gotten the right security clearance. Call your boss and tell them who I am, JD Daniel agent number 97532, and for them to call the Director of the CIA and then we can talk more about why I'm here."

He relayed the message to Eric through the earwig.

"Alright, I'll tell Het-"

"Stand down. I know Ms. Daniel. She's on our side." That was Hetty herself that had cut Eric off. She must have been in the ops room and heard Deeks relay the information about JD.

With a big sigh of relief and a huge grin on his face, Deeks put away his weapon and began walking towards JD.

"Looks like my boss knows you, JD."

She returned the smile and ran to him and wrapped her arms around him in a huge hug.

"It's so good to see you again Marty! It's been too long!" He picked her up and spun around with her.

"I know! And hey, what happened? I waited there for you that summer but you never came. I wrote you and called but you never responded."

A look of pure sadness darkened her features as he set her back down, "It's a long story Marty, one that we'll have to go into later. I've got to report back in with my boss... and not the one good one." She smiled as she retrieved her gun as well as Kensi's. "He was expecting to hear good news from this informant but you guys showed up before I could get the intel. Maybe we can work together on this. See if you can get-"

"Woh there, JD. I haven't seen you in almost 15 years, isn't it a little soon to be asking for favors?"

She smiled as she turned to give Kensi's gun back to Deeks, "Like I said, I don't have time to go into details. I know I didn't kill the informant but they need to believe that I did. Just hang onto him for me until I can meet with you again. I think we all could benefit from working together." She handed Deeks his partner's gun and holstered hers again. "And can you tell your partner I'm sorry that I had to hurt her?"

He nodded as he frowned at her, "I will." She was still the same old tough JD she had been when she was a teenager but somehow she was more distant which could probably be because they hadn't talked in a long time.

"I can't get away from my... undercover op until early morning. Can one of you you meet where we always met at 2am?" She paused, "There's a lot we need to talk about and it'll look like I'm meeting another one of my informants. It can't be you or the the other woman because they more than likely are looking both of you up right now."

This time she was close enough to Marty for Hetty to hear her over his earwig and before any of the guys could speak up, she was telling them what to say to JD.

"Tell Ms. Daniel that Mr. Callen will be there at 2am. The safe phrase is 'Arashi no yoru ni.' And tell her I look forward to seeing her again and to please be careful. I'm sure that us stumbling onto her operation and revealing herself to us has put her in more danger than she already was."

Deeks relayed the message, stumbling a bit over the Japanese but JD understood what it meant and nodded her understanding as she put her hood back up to cover most of her face.

"Don't worry. I wont let 3 years of undercover work go to waste." She a small two finger salute wave and smirked before leaping back up on the dumpster then swing back up the scaffolding like she had moments before. Deeks watched as she maneuvered her way gracefully up to the roof of the building before leaning back over the edge to yell back down at Deeks, "By the way, you're one lucky bastard. She's HOT!"


	2. Chapter 2: Anchors Aweigh

**First of all I want to thank these people for reviewing my chapter: vampiremuggle, LadyLit, amblue36, ExodusBeteNoire, and CP6. And an extra special thanks to my awesome beta LostForeverInHisEyes who helped a lot in making this fic so much better and has already improved my writing! **

**Next I would like to say that I don't know how long this fic is going to be. I've got lots of plans in my head but we'll see how it works out in text. I'm going to try and update at least once every two weeks. For now the ideas are just flowing out of my fingers and onto the keyboard so probably once a week for now. Forgive me if there's any OOCness. Just trying to get a little background on my OC and I thought this was the best way to do it even though she really doesn't make an appearance in this chapter. **

**This chapter is dedicated to my best friend Disa. She doesn't watch NCIS: Los Angeles or read fanfiction so I'm trying to convert her. She's also who I modeled JD after. **

**Rated T because I think they would be cursing more if it wasn't for TV censoring. However, rating is subject to change due to content I'm considering on adding in later chapters.**

**Please enjoy! ^_^**

Chapter 2: Anchors Aweigh

"I can't wait to hear this story, Deeks. Former girlfriend?" Sam asked as all four team members walked back into their offices after making sure the informant was taken care of and put under protective custody at the hospital.

Deeks wasn't even listening because he was lost in thought, going over everything that had happened with JD that afternoon, trying to make since of it all. Callen went to get some coffee as he listened to the others talk, his mind going over the details he knew up to this point.

JD was obviously strong and well trained if she could disable Kensi as fast as she had. From what Deeks had said she was good at evasion as well. Callen had a pretty good idea of the training that CIA operatives underwent before they actually became agents and the descriptions of JD had intrigued him somewhat. He had a gut feeling there was more to JD than just being an undercover agent for the CIA. She had to have previous training and the CIA had picked her to become an agent for a reason.

"There's no way she could be Deeks' former girlfriend. She's too much woman for him. Trust me." Kensi responded while gingerly touching her nose that was very bruised. "And what was that move she pulled on me? I saw her move toward me and I shot but the next thing I knew I was face first in the pavement and she was running away with my gun."

"Yeah Kensi, if she laid you out in 5 seconds flat she's more woman than _any _of us can handle. Especially Deeks." Sam tried to encourage the woman whose pride had been hurt.

Deeks didn't even register they were talking about him until Hetty had appeared beside him at his desk.

"It's a Japanese martial art known as Aikido, Ms. Blye."

This got Deeks' attention but it was Callen that spoke as he returned from getting his coffee.

"How do you know it was Aikido?"

Hetty smiled knowingly. "Because I've seen her use it before."

Before anyone could ask her where she knew JD from Eric was whistling at the top of the stairs.

"Got JD's file from the CIA and Director Vance is online."

As they all began their ascent to the ops center Deeks hung back to speak with Hetty for a moment.

"Hetty, you're going to have to tell me where you know JD from sometime."

"I will, Mr. Deeks. But for now we have more important matters to discuss." He nodded at her and continued up the stairs with her.

As they all filed into the room Director Vance welcomed them from the screen.

"Welcome to the show everyone. I'm sure you're all somewhat shocked to be running into one of our cousins with the CIA today, almost as much as I am."

Sam nudged Callen and leaned toward him a bit to mutter, "This must be bigger than we thought if Vance is in on it."

"You are correct, Mr. Hanna," Vance confirmed. "This undercover operation has just been handed to us. The CIA is leaving their operative in place seeing as she is in the best position to get us in. The case with our missing weapons is overlapping with their operation. It is now our job to find out who is involved and find the weapons before a sale can be made. I've forwarded you all the information the CIA gave to us pertaining to Ms. Daniel's assignment and they've kindly given us permission to use them as backup for our part of the operation."

He paused for emphasis. "The rest of the details are in the information that you received this morning. Good luck."

And with that, Vance hehad the transmission cut with a wave of his hand.

"Well that was informative," Deeks snorted at the blank screen.

Hetty chose to ignore the comment and get right down to business and turned to Eric, "Mr. Beale, Ms. Jones, could you please brief the team on the information the CIA sent us."

"Of course." Eric pressed a button on his tablet and JD's CIA file popped up on the screen. Her picture was pretty bland: no smile, hair pulled back, her deep blue eyes shone brightly in contrast to her dark hair and pale skin, "As you all know, the person our suspect met today is actually an operative of the CIA. JD Daniel has been on an undercover assignment as Jasmine Dresner for three years, posing as a hacker for the Russian Mafia. On the internet she's known by the hacker handle Blyn. She has been working for the CIA seven years as an undercover agent specializing in infiltrating computer security systems."

Callen hid his smile. He had been right. There was more to JD. She must have been a hacker the CIA either caught or recruited but that still didn't explain the Aikido moves. That's not something CIA goes out of their way to teach their agents.

Nell cut in here.

"The objective of the operation is to determine the other players in the Russian Mafia around the world using her hacking abilities and to find enough incriminating evidence to bring the key players down."

Eric tapped a few buttons on his tablet and fuzzy pictures appeared on the screen of JD and another man at a club in Los Angeles. The pictures weren't very clear as it was dark in the club but it was obvious JD and this man were looking pretty cozy together in their VIP corner.

"The man with JD in the pictures is Zakhar Sudakov, the suspected leader of the California branch of the Russian Mafia. JD has worked her way up from just a computer hacker and number cruncher in the organization to being the personal assistant to Sudakov. He's got his own personal hacker to find out anything he wants to know, whether it be for his ties in the drug smuggling ring with the Mexican cartels or the underground fighting scene." Eric taped a few more times on his tablet and there was a picture of Sudakov and JD outside of the club kissing quite passionately. "She's also posing as his girlfriend."

"Uh oh Deeks, looks like your former girlfriend traded up," Sam joked. Kensi tried to hide her smile but it was Callen who carried the joke a little farther.

"Looks like she goes for the bad boys with lots of money. You've got no chance."

"I'll take the first part of the statement as a compliment. I've always considered myself a good guy." Marty kidded back, but there was no real "Deeks" feeling behind it like they're all used to where he'd add the hurt puppy look or half smile.

"Okay, moving on." More tapping by Eric and profiles appeared on screen of several Russian men and Nell continued, "She was able to get information on seven members of the Californian branch of the Russian Mafia and the CIA is preparing to take them down at the same time sometime in the next few weeks. So as of 2359 hours tonight, her operation is over. They decided that she has been on this op long enough and the reports she submitted and reports from other operatives that have been observing her over these three years have determined that due to increasing pressure of the mission her cover might compromised if she stays in for much longer."

"Wait wait, what does that mean, 'increasing pressure'?" Deeks spoke up with concern for his old friend.

There was a pause and Eric brought up images of the report from JD's handler that looked more like a black page from being redacted to keep the key points from being read.

"Apparently something happened to her a few weeks ago that gave her handler cause for concern. The details have been redacted but from what I've pieced together, she's been forced into fighting in the underground fighting rings. Sudakov witnessed her protect him from an attack by a rival in the drug ring and realized she could bring in money fighting for him in the rings. There's something else here but it's all been blacked out and it was at this point that her handler suggested that they remove her from the operation soon."

"Looks like the CIA doesn't want anyone knowing certain details to the operation." Callen commented. Eric just nodded and continued with the briefing.

"Okay, so at 0000 hours tonight our mission officially begins. There's going to be an arms deal auction sometime within the next week that involves stolen weapons we were investigating the disappearance of. The report ends with JD not knowing the exact names of the naval officers involved but that she was close to discovering them. She was actually about to get the names of people that knew when we interrupted thinking that she was involved. She must have sent in a report right after she ran into us this morning."

Kensi jumped as her phone rang. Everyone turned to her as she pulled the phone out of her pocket to answer it. "Agent Blye." She answered. "Okay, thank you." She hung up and replaced the phone.

"Our suspect is awake at the hospital now."

"That's our cue, ladies and gentlemen." Hetty spoke as she gained control over the room again, "Mr. Callen, you're in charge of the mission now. I suggest you read over Ms. Daniel's reports as they will be of great help in this operation." With that, Hetty exited the room and left it all on Callen to plan the mission.

They all turned to face each other at the table in the center of the room as Callen spoke, "Alright, Deeks, what did JD say to you today? I need it word for word."

Deeks relayed everything that JD had told himthat morning. When he was done Callen put his hands down on the table and tapped his fingers a few times in thought before he began giving orders.

"Okay. Kensi, Deeks, you two will work the information end of this operation. I want to know what officers are involved in the stolen weapons we're after. Go see if our friend in the hospital is up to talking. As soon as he's released, take him to the boat shed. I want to know what he was going to tell JD. Also Deeks, give Eric the location that JD wants to meet tonight so we can get surveillance up."

"You got it." Deeks gave Eric the location and turned to head out with Kensi but stopped at the door to say one last thing to Callen before he left. "Can you tell her we need to talk when this is over? I need to knock some sense into her stupid head."

Callen smirked, "Sure, Deeks. This I would like to see."

After Deeks left, Sam turned to the video board and began flipping through some of the files Eric had left on the screen. "So what's your plan, G?"

"Eric and Nell, I'm going to need some backstopping for deep cover as an interested buyer for the stolen weapons. Also, contact JD's handler and see if they can spare a few people to keep an eye on Sudakov. I want to know where he is and what he's doing at all times. Sam, you're going to be my backup because I don't trust the CIA to watch my back."

Callen glanced at his watch. "Looks like we have eight hours before we meet with JD. Sam and I will read the details in JD's reports to make sure we know what we're getting ourselves into. You have that much time to get me a cover that can stand up to a hacker. I'm sure they're going to have JD look into my background."

Sam and Callen were handed computer tablets by Eric. "I haven't had a chance to make hard copies of the files so you'll have to view them on here for now." Callen gave the tablet a dirty look before he and Sam walked out of the ops center and back downstairs to get to reading.

Callen really preferred to read on paper instead of a screen, especially when there was a lot to read, but he would endure it now for the sake of time. He was also not really looking forward to reading through months of reports or the headache that would come after it.

They made it back to their desks and Callen went back to drinking his now cold coffee as he sat down and loaded the first file.

Sam sat down and stretched, "Gonna be a long night."

"You're telling me." Callen responded as he started reading the file.

After a few minutes of silence and reading Sam spoke up.

"Hey G?" Sam asked hesitantly after glancing around the room to see if anyone was listening.

"Yeah Sam?" Callen responded without even looking up from the tablet and taking another sip of his coffee.

"Something about this whole thing with JD doesn't feel right."

Callen paused and gave the question some thought, trying to put some logic into this gut feeling that just wouldn't go away about there being more to JD and this case than the CIA was willing to tell NCIS.

"I know what you mean, Sam. Hopefully we'll figure out what it is by reading these reports. You take the reports from the handler and I'll take JD's. Just everything from the last 6 months."

Sam nodded as he got comfortable in his desk chair and began reading through the dozens of reports. It was _really _going to be a long night.

It took Kensi all of about ten seconds after she and Deeks had buckled their seat belts before she was asking Deeks if he was alright.

"You want to talk about it?" She asked while pulling out of the driveway of the condemned home their ops center was based out of. She kept her eyes on the road because she figured that Deeks wouldn't look at her anyway if she were to glance over at him.

"No." Deeks remained focused on the passing scenery as he answered.

"Alright, you know I'm here if you want to."

There was an uncomfortable silence between them as she remained focused on the road and he kept his gaze on the other side of the window. However, it took only about 5 minutes for him to finally give in. He knew she wouldn't really leave him alone until he told her. So he started the monologue that was his experience with JD Daniel.

"It was the summer that I had just turned thirteen and I was spending more time out in the ocean than I was on land, mainly because I was bullied and beat up a lot for the rumors of me shooting my dad and ending up in foster care. They would say, 'Not so tough without a gun are you?' as they beat the crap out of me after school. I could have fought back, but at that point in my life I didn't really care." He paused long enough to smirk at the memory he was reliving. "On the first day we were out for summer, about seven or eight boys from my school were at the beach and saw me headed out to catch some waves. Somehow they boxed me in under the bridge and just started whaling into me. I just took the beating, wanting it to be over so I could just go surf, but I realized that they had taken my board. I had saved up a long time to afford it and they were going to break it and that hurt worse than any punch or kick they were beating me with. But right as they were swinging the board at a pillar of the pier this dark streak appeared and there was JD, punching the head bully square in the jaw. I have no idea where she'd come from, she was just there holding my board and she was _pissed_. I learned that day that hell hath no fury like JD when it comes to bullying."

"She sounds like she and I could get along pretty well. I bet after she took out the leader the rest ran off." Kensi remarked as she cut her eyes over at Deeks. He was still looking out the window but with a faint smile now instead of the blank expression he had before. Kensi wasn't just saying she could get along with JD, she knew she would. There aren't many girls that would run in and save someone from bullying. They would sympathize but not many had enough strength or presence of mind to actually do something about it.

"Not really. They were stupid enough to try and gang up on her but she dropped them like flies. Turns out JD was with her family on vacation from Texas at a summer home they owned close to the beach. You could really tell she was from Texas because her accent was so bad!" He chuckled a bit as he remembered how strong her accent was and how she'd introduced herself to him with moaning 14 year old boys littered around her feet.

Kensi was really getting into the story Deeks was telling so she kept trying to turn it into a conversation instead of a monologue.

"How could a 15 year old girl have the strength to beat up seven or eight boys her age?" Kensi asked.

"She said she had 4 older, overprotective brothers so she learned early on how to hold her own with them and they taught her how to stick up for herself when they weren't around. They also gave her the very male nick name of JD to make her feel more included. Her real name is Jennifer Dovelyn Daniel."

"I was wondering why she went by JD. It _is _a little odd for a girl to go by her initials like that." Kensi commented before he continued.

"She was 15 then and for the next three years we met at the beach during the summer and just hung out. I taught her how to surf and she taught me how to run. She's a free runner and just like surfing was to me, free running was her escape. JD saw the world differently than everyone else in that everything was an obstacle and puzzle for her to figure out and I got to see the world the way she saw it for a while. She helped me get over what happened with my dad without really asking me about it. She was just there, this constant thing I could look forward to every summer."

There was a very long silence as he thought back to the time he'd spent with her. She'd helped him through so much and had not even known it. He'd never told her about her father and she never asked.

Kensi decided to break the silence to get him to continue.

"So what happened? Where did she go?"

Deeks rubbed at his face as if he was trying to rub away a memory, never looking away from his window. "We had exchanged phone numbers and mailing addresses and I'd receive letters from her throughout the year when it wasn't summer, telling about the venison steak her dad would cook or how she had kicked her brothers asses at Doom and Tekken or how she'd taken apart the computer just to put it back together. Just something mundane that I really enjoyed reading. It was May of 1996 when I last heard from her in a letter. She said that she was scared and very nervous about her future. She had people from MIT and Harvard and Yale come talk to her about going to college. She said she wished she were here instead and couldn't wait to get away for the summer."

"So she was graduating and didn't know where she wanted to go?" Kensi asked to clarify what Deeks was saying.

Deeks shook his head. "I don't know. That was the last I heard from her. I waited for her under the pier where we first met like I always did. Every day that summer I waited. I finally got worried and wrote a letter but it was just returned. I tried to call her but the phone had been disconnected. My foster parents were pissed when they found out I was trying to call long distance but I didn't care. I tried to track her down after I graduated but it was like she'd never existed. I began to wonder if I had just made her up in my head." He paused and looked down at his hands as if he were reliving that time he knew he would probably never see her again.

Kensi let the silence stretch as she pulled into the hospital parking lot. Instead of asking him more questions she just made a comfortable statement.

"So Sam was wrong. Not a former girlfriend." She looked at Deeks and smiled. He smiled back. His partner was great. She knew exactly what to say to make him smile.

"But oh man, I wish she had been but I was scared shitless of her! She beat the crap out of any of the boys that would hit on her and not leave her alone." He unbuckled and opened the door of the car after Kensi had parked as she did the same.

"Wow Deeks. I never would have thought you would be scared of a girl." The sarcasm was literally dripping from her voice.

"Hey, I wasn't the one that she flattened out on the concrete in 5 seconds today." He retorted.

Kensi decided to let him have that one. He'd just poured his heart out to her about his past, which is more than she could say she'd done with him. He obviously needed to get it off his chest and she was more than happy to be the person to listen. She was his partner after all.

As they approached the front doors of the hospital Deeks reached out and grabbed her wrist lightly to get her to stop and look at him.

"Thanks Kensi," he said as he looked her straight in eye, conveying with his eyes how much he really appreciated her.

Kensi took his hand in hers and gave it a light, brief squeeze before she pulled away and smiled.

"No problem Deeks."

**Thanks for reading! Please review! The next chapter will have a bit of action AND a bit of undercover romance. **


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